Zimbabwe Has Become So Expensive to Govern That Government Is Now Cutting Its Own Taxes – Zealous Thierry

Zimbabwe is cutting 291 licences, permits, levies and fees to reduce the cost of doing business.

Good.

But who made it expensive in the first place?

These charges were created, approved and collected by the same system now removing them and presenting the change as reform.

Zimbabwe has a habit of creating problems, living with them for years, then fixing part of them and asking for applause.

Doing almost anything in the formal economy can feel like asking the state for permission to breathe. You need licences, permits, fees and levies from multiple departments. By the time a small business navigates the bureaucracy, it has spent money that could have gone to stock, wages or expansion.

Then we wonder why people operate informally, why young Zimbabweans hustle on WhatsApp and why investors look elsewhere.

Informality is not always a preference. Often, it is what happens when formal participation becomes too expensive, slow or complicated.

The government has spent years telling people to formalise while creating so many rules that compliance becomes its own business.

So the real question is whether cutting these charges reflects a change in philosophy or merely another temporary clean-up exercise. Zimbabwe often announces reforms while the person trying to open a small business remains stuck waiting for a stamp.

People experience “ease of doing business” at council offices, ZIMRA, banks, borders and shop counters—not in speeches or PowerPoint presentations.

The decision should be welcomed, but it should also embarrass us. Removing 291 charges suggests the problem was never just a few bad fees. The state has become very good at finding things to charge people for, while making it difficult for them to become productive enough to afford those charges.

This creates a cycle: government wants formal businesses for their taxes, but makes formality expensive. Businesses stay informal or do not start. Government then complains about informality and creates more charges.

That cycle must end.

Government should measure success by how easily ordinary people can create economic activity, not by how many ways it can extract money from it.

So yes, cut the 291 charges. Then find the next 291.

Zimbabwe does not need a cheaper state merely because government has finally noticed that it is expensive. It needs one because ordinary Zimbabweans cannot afford an expensive state.

The government has finally discovered that Zimbabwe is expensive.

The rest of us have known for years.

Source: Zimbabwe Has Become So Expensive to Govern That Government Is Now Cutting Its Own Taxes – Zealous Thierry